Player Guidance through Light Sources in Open World Games

Abstract

This thesis investigates, analyses, and compares two critically acclaimed open world RPGs, Elden Ring and The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt, towards their use of light
in guiding a player through the game. This is done through the analysis of a selfmade, recorded playthrough as well as a deeper analysis of the starting area of each
game, synthesizing both the very close analysis and the broader strokes analysis into one coherent design philosophy. Both these philosophies will then be compared and
contrasted to find their overlaps. The analysis found that the games in question had little to no overlap in how they use light to guide players, leading to the conclusion that
there is to be no “right” way to utilize light as a guidance tool so long as the chosen method fits holistically into the world that is being built.

Date of Award	2024
Original language	English (American)
Supervisor	Michael Lankes (Supervisor)